Ayer Modern MS McNickleInventory of the D'Arcy McNickle Papers,
1913-1986,bulk 1924-1977Ayer.Modern.MS.McNickleFinding aid prepared by D'Arcy McNickleThe Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts60 West Walton StreetChicago, Illinois, 60610312-255-35112003This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit
2014-06-13T09:51-0500D'Arcy McNickleAyer.Modern.MS.McNickleThe Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts15.5 linear feet(34 boxes, 1 oversize box)Bulk, 1924-19771913-19863 60 1-2Literary and scholarly manuscripts, diaries, correspondence, and other materials of D'Arcy McNickle, American Indian author, government employee, community organizer, anthropologist, and historian. Records cover McNickle's work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, American Indian Development, Inc., the University of Saskatchewan, and the Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library.Materials are in English.McNickle, D'Arcy, 1904-1977
Provenance

Gift of the estate of D'Arcy McNickle, 1983; Omer C. Stewart additions gift of Omer Stewart, 1986; and other additions noted in the accession file.

Access

The D'Arcy McNickle Papers are open for research; they are available one box at a time in the Special Collections reading room (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

Ownership and Literary Rights: The D'Arcy McNickle Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns.

Cite As

D'Arcy McNickle Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Processed by

Rebecca S. Graff, 2001

Biography of D'Arcy McNickle

Born on January 18, 1904 in St. Ignatius, Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation, William D'Arcy McNickle was a novelist, author, employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, director of American Indian Development, Inc., community organizer, activist, professor of anthropology, historian, and program director of the Newberry Library Center for the History of the American Indian.

Born to a French Cree (Métis) mother, Philomene Parenteau, and an Irish father, William James McNickle, McNickle was the youngest child, and had two older sisters, Ruth Elizabeth and Florence Lea. McNickle's mother applied for membership into the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (known as the Flathead) and she and her children were adopted and received a land allotment under the 1887 Dawes Act. His parents divorced in 1914 and for a time McNickle went by the name of his stepfather, Dahlberg.

McNickle attended mission and government schools for Indian children in Montana and in Oregon, and attended the University of Montana from 1921-1925. In 1925 McNickle sold his land allotment and left for Europe, attending Oxford University (1925-1926) and the University of Grenoble (1931). He eventually went to work in New York and also was briefly at Columbia University in 1933. Although he never finished a degree, McNickle received an honorary Sc.D from the University of Colorado in 1966.

Eventually McNickle went to Washington, D.C. to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs under John Collier. He worked under this "Indian New Deal" from 1936 to 1952 as an administrative assistant, a field representative for the commissioner, an assistant to the commissioner, and eventually the director of tribal relations. In 1952 he took up the directorship of the newly established American Indian Development, Incorporated, which was run out of the University of Colorado, Boulder. McNickle arranged workshops for Indian students who would arrive from across the country. Eventually the focus of the organization turned to the Navajo community of Crownpoint, New Mexico. In 1966 McNickle was invited to a professorship at the newly established University of Saskatchewan, Regina campus where he was to head and create an anthropology department. After officially retiring to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1971, McNickle went to Chicago in 1972 to help create the Newberry Library's Center for the History of the American Indian. In 1984, the center was named after him in honor of his life and his work, making it one of two organizations named after McNickle (the second is library at the Salish-Kootenai Community College on the Flathead Reservation).

McNickle is the author of three novels:
The Surrounded (1936),
Runner in the Sun: A Story of Indian Maize (1954), and
Wind From an Enemy Sky (1978). His non-fiction work includes
They Came Here First: The Epic of the American Indian (1949),
Indians and Other Americans (1959 and 1970, with Howard E. Fey),
Indian Tribes of the United States: Ethnic and Cultural Survival (1962, revised in 1973 as Native American Tribalism), and
Indian Man: A Life of Oliver La Farge (1971). McNickle also wrote many articles including the entry for "Indians, North America" in the 1951
Encyclopedia Britannica and books reviews for
American Anthropologist. He wrote short stories and poetry too, and was published in many popular magazines including
Esquire, Common Ground, the
Chicago Tribune Magazine supplement, and
Frontier and Midland. These stories as well as unpublished ones are included in
The Hawk is Hungry and Other Stories, edited by Birgit Hans (1992).

In addition to his paid positions and his writing, McNickle worked for several other organizations. He chaired the steering committee of the 1961 American Indian Chicago Conference and was the primary author of the conference's "Declaration of Indian Purpose." He was a founding member of the National Congress of America Indians, a fellow of the American Anthropological Association, and a member of the executive committee of the Society for American Archaeology (1972-1973).

Like his mother, McNickle was married three times: first, to Joran Jacobine Birkeland from 1926-1938, second to Roma Kaye Haufman from 1939-1967, and finally to his AID co-worker, sociologist Viola Gertrude Pfrommer, from 1969-1977. McNickle had two daughters, Antoinette Marie Parenteau McNickle (with Joran) and Kathleen D'Arcy McNickle (with Roma). He died suddenly of a heart attack in October 1977.

Scope and Content of the Collection

This collection consists of a wide variety of materials, with the largest number representing McNickle's writings and his papers from American Indian Development. Other materials include his diaries, newspaper clippings including book reviews, correspondence, McNickle's notes from teaching at the University of Saskatchewan, materials from the Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library, television and radio materials, photographs, and assorted personal papers of D'Arcy McNickle, with the bulk of the collection dating from about 1953-1977. There are also copies of anthropologist Sol Tax's papers, miscellaneous additions from anthropologist Omer C. Stewart, and some assorted papers concerning Canadian Indian organizations. The papers cover his life from his college years, his time at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, his career at American Indian Development, his tenure at the University of Saskatchewan, and his final appointment at the Center for the History of the American Indian.

Contains manuscripts of novels, manuscripts of non-fiction books, articles, book reviews by McNickle, and poetry. The book materials frequently include drafts, notes and other research materials, and final published copies. Unless noted differently, the titles listed are of book-length manuscripts.

Arrangement note

The items are arranged alphabetically within the type of material: books, articles, book reviews, short stories, poems, and fragments.

"Dinetxa: A Community Experience" draft - book manuscript written with Viola Pfrommer11"Dinetxa: A Community Experience" draft - book manuscript written with Viola Pfrommer12"Dinetxa: A Community Experience" draft - book manuscript written with Viola Pfrommer13-4Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - early draft25Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - chapters 1-1226Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - chapters 13-2027 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - copies of LaFarge's correspondence28 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - LaFarge's correspondence29 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notes210 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notes311Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notes and miscellaneous related materials312Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - papers of the Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc. papers313 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notebook #1314 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notebook #2315 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notebook #3316 Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - McNickle's journal containing entries related to the book317Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge - notebook with clippings318Indians and Other Americans - writings by coauthor Howard E. Fey with corrections by McNickle419-20 Indians and Other Americans - revised copy421 The Indian Tribes of the United States - draft422The Indian Tribes of the United States: Ethnic and Cultural Survivals - published copy423 Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals - published copy424 North American Tribalism: Survivals and Renewals - draft425 North American Tribalism: Survivals and Renewals - draft426Runner in the Sun - early draft, titled
The Boy Who Stole the Sun527 Runner in the Sun - first draft528 Runner in the Sun - notes529 The Surrounded - manuscript630-31 They Came Here First - draft632 They Came Here First - notes and corrections633 They Came Here First - published copy634 Wind From an Enemy Sky - draft and outline735-36Wind From an Enemy Sky - draft737Wind From an Enemy Sky - first draft738Wind From an Enemy Sky - draft739-40Wind From an Enemy Sky - draft741Wind From an Enemy Sky - draft742Wind From an Enemy Sky - fragments843Wind From an Enemy Sky - early draft, titled
How Anger Died844-45Wind From an Enemy Sky - final draft846-48 Wind From an Enemy Sky - galley849 Wind From an Enemy Sky - published copy850"The American Indian Today" - speech published as an article in
The Missouri Archaeologist 5(2), 1939951"American Indians That Never Were" - article952"American Indians That Never Were"- in
New University Thought volume 7(3), 1971953Captives Within a Free Society: Federal Policy and the American Indian - manuscript, historical review for The American Indian Policy Review Committee954-57"Commentary" - article in
Indian-White Relations: A Persistent Paradox958"The Evidence of Their Lives" - article in
The Nation July 22, 1968959"Four Years of Indian Reorganization" - article in
Indians at Work, July 1938, No. 11.960"The Goals of the Group" - article in
The Nation, September 27, 1965961"The Golden Myth" - article in
Common Ground, Summer 1949962"Habla un piel roja" - article in
América Indígena, April 1954963"The Healing Vision" - article in
Tomorrow, 4(3), 19561064"The Indian in American Society" - published speech1065"Indian Crisis, U.S.A." - article in
Colby Junior College Bulletin, 14(5), 19541066"Indian and European: Indian-White Relations From Discovery to 1887" - article in
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 19571067"Indian Expectations"- article in
Indian Truth, 38(1), 19611068"Indian, North America" -
Encyclopedia Britannica article, 19511069"The Indians of the United States" - article in
América Indígena, 18(2), 19581070"In Search of the White Man's Guidance" - article in
The Nation, April 25, 19661071"It's Almost Never Too Late" - article in
The Christian Century, February 20, 19571072"John Collier's Vision" - article in
The Nation, June 3, 19681073"Looking Backward" - article in
The Nation, December 23, 19681074Miscellaneous articles1075"Peyote and the Indian" - article in
Scientific Monthly, 57(3), 19431076"Private Intervention" - article in
Human Reorganization, 20(4), Winter 1961-21077"Process or Compulsion: The Search for a Policy of Administration in Indian Affairs"1078"A Record of the Vanished West" - article in
The Nation, December 25, 19671079"Rich Ceremonial Life of American Indians Brought to Us Through Music of Tribes - article, 19381080"Saskatchewan" notes, outline, and manuscript - article1081"The Sociocultural Setting of Indian Life" - article in
American Journal of Psychiatry 125(2), 19681082"They Cast Long Shadows," part 1 and 2 - article in
The American Way, November and December 19711083"Two Ways to Grow Up" - article in
The Nation, March 28, 19661084"U.S. Indian Affairs-1953" - article in
América Indígena, 13(4) article in América Indígena 17(3), 19571085"We Are On Our Way" - article in
Highroad, May 19451086"We Go On From Here" - article in
Common Ground, Autumn 19431087"Review of 'American Indian Policy in the Formative Years' by F. P. Prucha" - book review reprints1188"Brandon: The Last Americans" - book review in
The Nation, December 7, 19741189"Review of 'Education and the American Indian: The Road to Self-Determination, 1928-1970' by Margaret Szasz" - Book review1190Review "Ortiz and the Tewa World" - article in The Nation April 27, 19701191"Review of 'South of the Sunset' by Claire Warner Churchill" -book review in the
New York Herald Tribune Books, Sunday, July 19, 1936.1192"Afternoon on a Rock" - article in
Common Ground, Spring 19451193"Debt of Gratitude" - draft - short story1194"The Hawk is Hungry" - manuscript - short story1195"The Hawk is Hungry" - draft - short story1196"The Hawk is Hungry" - draft - short story1197"The Hawk is Hungry" - final draft - short story1198"The Hawk is Hungry" - fragments - short story1199"If I Were Commissioner"/ "En roulant ma boule, roulant" - fragments - short story11100"In the Alien Corn" - draft - short story11101"Let the War Be Fought" - draft - short story11102"Manhattan Wedlock" - draft - short story11103"Man's Work" - two drafts and research notes - short story11104"Meat for God" - draft with photocopy - short story11105"Meat for God" - short story in
Esquire, September 193511106"Newcomers" - draft and photocopies - short story12107"Six Beautiful in Paris" - draft with photocopy - short story12108"Snowfall" - draft - short story12109"Snowfall" - draft - short story12110"Snowfall" - draft - short story12111"Snowfall" manuscript - short story12112"Snowfall" - short story in
Common Ground, Summer 194412113untitled - short story12114untitled - short story12115"The Wedding Night" and photocopy - short story12116miscellaneous poems12117"Song of Malinche" - verse play on Cortez12118"The Third Daughter" - narrative poem12119miscellaneous fragments12120D'Arcy McNickle's Diaries,1931-1970
Scope and Contents note

Contains diaries as well as garden notebooks (which often serve as diaries). The content of the diaries, which is hard to discern at times due to McNickle's handwriting, concerns his travels, his work, and his thoughts about life. The garden notebooks are used to record the work done on his garden, as well as notes on the weather and plants.

Contains reviews of books written by McNickle. Many of the clippings were sent to him by a clipping company that he hired to collect such articles. Also included here are requests for McNickle to review books by other authors. Some of these published reviews are located in the "Writings" series.

Arrangement note

Arranged alphabetically by book title, followed by requests for reviews.

Reviews of "Indian Man: A Life of Oliver LaFarge"17150Reviews of "Indians and Other Americans"17151Reviews of "Native American Tribalism"17152Reviews of "Runner in the Sun"17153Reviews of "The Surrounded," first edition17154Reviews of "They Came Here First"17155Requests for McNickle to review books17156Correspondence1924-1977
Scope and Contents note

Contains incoming and outgoing correspondence, the bulk of which comes from 1950-1977. No attempt was made to separate the incoming from outgoing correspondence, but letters are arranged chronologically with the exception of several folders arranged by subject matter at the end of this series. Topics include publishing, meeting arrangements for discussion of a variety of topics, financial matters, requests to read articles, and personal matters. Many of the letters concern issues related to McNickle's tenure at AID as well as his attempts to get his books published. Prominent correspondents include various members and donors to AID, many publishing houses, and Viola G. Pfrommer. Other folders of correspondence have been placed alongside relevant materials in other series.

Arrangement note

Arranged chronologically, followed by several folders arranged by subject.

From 1952 to 1966 McNickle was the director of AID, a project funded by the Field Foundation. Its purpose was "concerned with helping the Indian people of the United States to find and use the material resources and the leadership which exists in their communities" (McNickle, AID First Annual Report, 1952). Workshops were first run on a variety of pertinent subjects. Later AID began to focus upon one community, Crownpoint, New Mexico. The Crownpoint project ran from 1953-1960.

McNickle acquired copies of anthropologist Sol Tax's correspondence from the library of University of Chicago. Tax is well-known for his contributions to anthropology, including his work on the Chicago Indian Conference in 1961. The correspondence, which is mainly between Tax and McNickle, covers topics such as Tax's involvement with AID (he was one of a group of directors), McNickle's solicitation for Tax's opinions on job candidates at the University of Saskatchewan, and correspondence about articles and books.

Omer C. Stewart, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, donated his file of material relating to D'Arcy McNickle to the Newberry in 1986. The types of materials present include letters, articles, and AID meeting notes. Many of these items are concerned with the National Congress of the American Indian (NCAI) and AID (Stewart was a board member of AID).

D'Arcy McNickle accepted a position at the newly established University of Saskatchewan, Regina as a professor of anthropology in 1966. There he organized the teaching program and recruited staff. He retired in June 1971. This series contains McNickle's papers relating to this period in his life, including correspondence with university staff and faculty, memoranda issued by McNickle, department budgets, and papers concerning Canadian Indian rights.

University of Saskatchewan materials - Miscellaneous27220University of Saskatchewan materials - Miscellaneous27221Center for the History of the American Indian Materials,1971-1977
Scope and Contents note

D'Arcy McNickle, along with Lawrence W. Towner, was instrumental in establishing the Center for the History of the American Indian (CHAI ) at the Newberry Library in 1972. It was renamed after him in 1984. This series contains materials related to the CHAI.

This series contains materials from a television project, The Peopling of the New World, which was produced by Marlon Brando and John F. Beck through Black Elk Productions. McNickle served as a consultant for the series. There are also transcripts of 1941 radio broadcasts 1941 by Charles W. Collier, Josefina de Román, and McNickle.

The Peopling of the New World, correspondence302341974-1975The Peopling of the New World, outlines30235-337 The Peopling of the New World, proposal30238Radio broadcast transcripts,302391941Personal Items1913-1977
Scope and Contents note

This series includes identification materials, legal documents from McNickle's parents' divorce and his boarding school, and McNickle's curriculum vitae.

This series contains individual folders that do not fit elsewhere in the collection.

Articles about McNickle32244Articles by other people32245Blue Lake materials32246Contracts for books32247Drawing tablet with sketches32248Notes on books (not McNickle's books)32249Royalty statements from "They Came Here First"32250Photographs,1952-1977
Scope and Contents note

This series contains photographs, negatives, and slides of a variety of subjects, including many AID-related events. All are taken in the Southwest unless otherwise noted.

Arrangement note

The photographs, many of which are undated and have no indication of subject matter, were arranged according to date or subject when it was possible. Negatives were grouped as they were found in their envelopes. The three slides were grouped together at the end of the series.